Breaking down the Martinsville starting lineup

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Stewart-Haas Racing has all four of its drivers among the eight finalists.

It was just two years ago when Joe Gibbs Racing accomplished the same feat with Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin made it to the third (semifinal) round.

Two of those drivers – Busch and Edwards – made it to the championship round.

“It puts more strain on the shop obviously to have to produce more caliber cars to go to the race track each and every week,” Busch said. “Everybody puts everything into all their stuff all the time, but there’s that added motivation when you are in the Round of 8 so I just think that compounds itself when you have to go with four versus just one.”

Busch indicated it can be more difficult to have all three teammates vying for the four playoff spots.

“When you have four guys in there, you have four that are striving to have really, really good, solid days and the teammate game isn’t necessarily teammates,” Busch said. “It’s all about yourself all the time when you have all four in versus when you have just myself being eligible now.

“There’s opportunity for me to get some slack cut my way by my teammates that I wouldn’t necessarily ask them to or expect them to. They obviously have to race for what they feel is right as well.”

Kevin Harvick sits second in the standings and currently 39 points ahead of the cutoff thanks to his seven wins and 54 playoff points. The rest of the SHR stable currently are on the outside looking in – Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch three points behind and Aric Almirola at points behind.

“You are teammates, but it’s hard for me to say some people are not going to be maybe more tight-lipped in meetings and with their notes and what they would be regularly,” said JGR driver Denny Hamlin about having three teammates among the final eight. “Things didn’t really change a whole lot for us from our standpoint [in 2016].

“But certainly you’re like, ‘Man, do I want to keep cutting my teammates breaks when they’re the ones I have to beat.'”

Of course, SHR insists it will be a team effort.

“A total team effort across the board is the reason you have all four cars in the Round of 8,” Bowyer said. “We have half of the battle. I think that because of the willingness to cooperate with one another from a driver standpoint and the willingness to work with one another from the crew chiefs, engineering and everything involved.”

The SHR drivers have combined for 12 wins this year – Harvick with seven, Bowyer with three and Busch and Almirola with one apiece.

“When you know you have a car that can win, there is just a fire that burns inside you and the race team,” Almirola said. “You just show up at the track and you’re ready to kick some butt.”

The average finish of remaining playoff drivers at Martinsville: Kyle Busch (12.7), Bowyer (13.5), Joey Logano (13.8), Harvick (15.5), Chase Elliott (18.2), Martin Truex Jr. (19.0), Almirola (22.0) and Kurt Busch (21.4).

Martinsville wins among playoff drivers: Kyle Busch (2), Kurt Busch (2), Bowyer (1) and Harvick (1).

Elliott said he hasn’t seen an extra focus on him as the only Hendrick Motorsports car.

“I don’t really see that day-to-day,” he said. “I haven’t noticed it. Honestly, I really don’t think our process or preparation or how things work in the shop has really changed.

“And I think if you change that now, it would kind of be disrupting our normal flow. … That process is trustworthy, and I trust in that obviously, our team does and everybody that is involved in the No. 9 team does, so I just don’t think there is any need in changing that anyway. I think things for us will stay pretty status quo and we will see how it plays out.”

This is the provisional lineup (pending technical inspection Sunday morning) for the FirstData 500 on Sunday (2:30 p.m., NBCSN):

1. Kyle Busch (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota): Busch led 184 laps on the way to the win at Martinsville a year ago. That was his second career victory at the track where he has led 1,324 laps, including 24 on his way to a second-place finish in March.

2. Clint Bowyer(Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Ford): Bowyer led 215 laps on his way to the win in March, his third consecutive top-10 at the track. He started ninth in that race.

3. Denny Hamlin(Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota): Hamlin has five career Cup wins at Martinsville. Since his last win, he has finishes of third, 39th, third, 30th, seventh and 12th. He led 111 laps in March before settling for 12th. Why should the field be worried about Hamlin? Hamlin after qualifying third: “We were not very fast in the short runs, so this is a very pleasant surprise for us that we qualified as well we did as built for the long run as our car is.”

4. Ryan Blaney (Team Penske No. 12 Ford): Blaney led 145 laps and finished third at Martinsville in March, his second consecutive top-10 at the track.

5. Aric AlmirolaAric Almirola (Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford): Almirola has no finish better than 12th in his last eight Martinsville starts. He was 14th in March.

6. Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota): For a team looking to curb a slump, Martinsville might be a good place for Truex. He has finishes of second and fourth in his last two starts at the track (although he only led four laps combined in those two races). Prior to last October, Truex had a string of 10 consecutive Martinsville starts without a top-5.

7. Kurt Busch (Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Ford): Busch does not have a top-10 finish since his March 2014 victory at Martinsville. He started 11th and finished 11th in March.

8. Brad Keselowski (Team Penske No. 2 Ford): Keselowski won at Martinsville in April 2017 and led 224 laps at Martinsville last year. He led just one lap in March and finished 10th.

9. Daniel Suarez (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota): Suarez hopes to have a good finish in his last four races at JGR, but Martinsville could be a tough ask. He has a best of 15th in three career Cup starts at the track.

10. Kyle Larson (Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet): Larson has one top-10 in nine career Cup starts at Martinsville. He seeks his first top-10 since finishing third in April 2016.

11.Joey Logano(Team Penske No. 22 Ford): Logano has led 516 laps at Martinsville but still seeks his first win at the track. He has started in the top-3 in eight of his last nine starts and in the top-six in all of his last 11 starts. He started third and finished sixth in March.

12. William Byron (Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet): Byron started 20th and finished 20th in his first Cup start at Martinsville in March.

13. Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford): Harvick has back-to-back fifth-place finishes at Martinsville, a place where he won in April 2011. He has not led a lap in his last four starts at the track.

14. David Ragan (Front Row Motorsports No. 38 Ford): Since a fifth in the March 2015 race at Martinsville, Ragan has not finished better than 25th at Martinsville.

15. Chris Buescher (JTG Daugherty Racing No. 37 Chevrolet): Buescher seeks his first top-10 as he enters his seventh career Cup race at Martinsville.

16. Alex Bowman (Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet): Bowman did not have a top-20 in his first four Martinsville starts and then posted a seventh back in March.

17. AJ Allmendinger (JTG Daugherty Racing No. 47 Chevrolet): Martinsville has been one of Allmendinger’s best tracks as he has finishes of second, 10th, sixth and eighth among his last five starts at the track.

18. Ryan Newman (Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevrolet): Newman, who won the April 2012 race at the track, has one top-5 and four top-10s in 12 Martinsville races since that victory.

19. Jamie McMurray (Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1 Chevrolet): McMurray finished top-10 in nine of his first 14 Cup starts at Martinsville. He has three in his last nine and has finished outside the top-25 in his last three.

20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Roush Fenway Racing No. 17 Ford): Stenhouse has never led a lap in 11 career starts at Martinsville, where his best finish is 10th.

21. Chase ElliottChase Elliott (Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet): Few can probably forget what happened to Elliott a year ago at Martinsville as he was leading late 9he led 123 laps in the race) and tangled with Denny Hamlin. He finished ninth in March.

22. Michael McDowell (Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford): McDowell has finishes from 18th-21st in three of his last four Martinsville starts.

23. Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet): With nine career wins at Martinsville, Johnson should be a favorite. But with finishes of 15th, 12th and 15th in his last three starts, he has lost that designation.

24. Erik Jones (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota): Jones has a career-best of 12th in three Cup starts at Martinsville.

25. Ross Chastain (Premium Motorsports No. 15 Chevrolet): He was 29th at Martinsville in March. He has six career truck starts at the track with a best of seventh.

26. Ty Dillon (Germain Racing No. 13 Chevrolet): Martinsville hasn’t been kind to Dillon, who still seeks his first top-20 at the track after three career starts.

27. Matt Kenseth (Roush Fenway Racing No. 6 Ford): Kenseth has top-10s in his last three starts at Martinsville. This very well could be the place of his best finish this year as he seeks his first top-10 in his 13th start.

28. Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet): Dillon has two career top-5s at Martinsville, a place where he has never started better than 12th – and that was in March when the drivers lined up by points.

29. Matt DiBenedetto (Go Fas Racing No. 32 Ford): DiBenedetto has not finished better than 29th in seven career Martinsville starts.

30. Regan Smith (Leavine Family Racing No. 95 Chevrolet): Smith hasn’t competed at Martinsville in a Cup car in two years. He hasn’t had a top-10 in his 12 Cup starts at the track.

31. Cole Whitt (TriStar Motorsports No. 72 Chevrolet): Whitt was 27th at Martinsville in March.

32. Bubba Wallace (Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford): Wallace has two truck victories at Martinsville (including his first career truck win in October 2013), but the track didn’t treat him well in March, where he finished 34th in the Cup race. He crashed in qualifying and will drop to the rear at the start in a backup car.

33. DJ Kennington (Gaunt Brothers Racing No. 96 Toyota): Kennington was a late replacement for Jeffrey Earnhardt. The team would not comment on the change.

34. JJ Yeley(BK Racing No. 23 Toyota): Yeley’s best finish at Martinsville is 20th – in his first career start at the track in 2006.

35. Joey Gase (StarCom Racing No. 00 Chevrolet): Gase makes his seventh Cup start of the season. He competed in a Cup race in April 2016 at Martinsville and finished 36th.

36. Jeb Burton (Rick Ware Racing No. 51 Ford): Burton is making his first Cup start in more than two years.

37. Timmy Hill (Motorsports Business Management No. 66 Toyota): Hill has not raced at Martinsville since April 2017. He has three career Cup starts at the track.

38. Hermie Sadler (Premium Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet): Sadler is making his first Cup start of the season. The Virginia native has sponsorship from the Virginia Lottery.

39. Paul Menard (Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford): Menard is typically good for a finish anywhere from eighth to 20th as he has finished in that range in nine of his last 12 starts at the track. Menard had ignition issues in qualifying.

40. Landon Cassill (StarCom Racing No. 99 Chevrolet): Cassill has a career best of 19th in 16 career Martinsville starts.